1st time Bottcher regional meeting comes to Australia

Mitch Mulligan is chuffed to play host to over 30 of his fellow managers for the company’s annual sales meeting in Sydney.

This is the first time the company has brought its strategic meeting to Australia. Participants from all over Asia as well as from headquarters in Germany enjoyed Sydney hospitality during the three-day get together.

The German-based roller and consumables company is enjoying good growth in the region as it services the printing markets of China and other developing nations. Even the so-called mature markets such as Australia are considered to have upside in terms of market share.

According to Franz-Georg Heggemann, managing director, Bottcher, (pictured with Mitch Mulligan) the company is insulated from the vagaries of the market turmoil by the breadth of its products range and the number of industries in which it participates. In addition to its traditional printing roller business it also manufactures rubber products such as handrails for escalators as well as packaging materials.

Bottcher printing rollers are the default components of most brand new offset presses that roll off the assembly line. While the numbers may be down in recent times there is a compensatory rise in the number of digital presses the company also services.

Re-covering offset rollers provides a significant and ongoing revenue stream and ties Bottcher closely into the well being of the printing industry. Despite the downturn in printing volumes in the developed markets, Heggemann is confident the growth in places such as China will continue to power offset printing for many years to come.

In recent years Bottcher has increased its footprint in the region with a manufacturing plants in Thailand, China and Singapore.